I go where the people need me.

Yesterday, the taxpayers needed me to go on a river float down the Yuba River, to see salmon spawning, to look at a dam and think about removal options, and to look at a potential flood control project. The dam was nothing special. I’ve seen better. The salmon were way cooler than I expected. They’re so damn big and strong and fast. My abstract appreciation for them hadn’t done them justice. But the mind-blowing part was the story the geologist told us. He’s the Abandoned Mine bureaucrat for the west and I wanted to listen to him for hours and hours. He was in the other boat, but I heard some of it…